Dictionary

go off the boil en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (Australia, UK) To cease to boil when heat is no longer applied.
   • All puddings must be boiled in plenty of water, turned frequently, kept closely covered, and never allowed to go off the boil. 1891, Nelson A. Dunning, editor, The Farmers' Alliance History and Agricultural Digest:
   • That is the reason for the coin. You will be able to hear it dancing about, and it will tell you if the water goes off the boil or is getting dangerously low. 1972, Diana Kennedy, Craig Claibourne, The Cuisines of Mexico:
2. (Australia, UK, idiomatic) To lose interest; to pall.
   • Wednesday to Shadow, "I don't sleep. It's overrated. A bad habit I do my best to avoid - in company, wherever possible, and the young lady may go off the boil if I don't get back to her." 2004, Neil Gaiman, American Gods:
   • As one of the rearguard put it, "We laid up until the Hun had gone off the boil a bit and slipped out the following night." 1955, John Baker White, The Big Lie:
   • But John, not surprisingly, has gone off the boil, and feels nothing for Annette so strongly as an intense weariness and desire to be rid of her. 1987, Rosalind Miles, The Female Form: Women Writers and the Conquest of the Novel:
   • By then we'd gone off the boil sexually and he was even less keen than I was about 'marriedness', so it was more like friends deciding to share a flat than the setting-up of a ménage. 2009, Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir:
3. (Australia, UK, idiomatic) To diminish in intensity or urgency.
4. (Australia, UK, idiomatic) To become less successful.

Forms

Relateds

come to the boil · be on the boil · return to the boil · bring to the boil · be off the boil · come off the boil · come on the boil · go on the boil